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6.27.2013

I’m William Robert Stanek and I’ve been a professionally
published author since 1995. Over my long, distinguished career, my books have
been translated into 34 languages and purchased by 7.5 million people. All my life
I’ve been a writer—well most of my life anyway, as I really got my start in the
4th grade when I wrote two regular columns for the school newspaper.

I’m a successful writer by any standard and yet bigger
success has been derailed time and again by despicable competitors—competitors
who I call the architects of hate. For years they’ve been at work trying to
destroy my good name and reputation in the industry. I’m rather sick and tired
of it. I’m also sick and tired of running into people almost daily who seek to
harass and intimidate me regarding these matters. So here goes, the Wall of
Shame by name:

David Langford

Stephen Leigh

Jim C. Hines

Victoria Strauss

David Louis Edelman

Patrick Rothfuss
Tim Spalding

This isn’t by any means a complete list. It is, however, a list of the most
egregious offenders (along with the blogger friends of these persons who I've
talked about previously like Adam Whitehead and Patrick St. Dennis). These are
the ones who got the mobs riled up intentionally. Primarily, these also are
professionally published competitors who have been at this nonsense for years.
Some since at least 2002. Some who continue the nonsense to this day.

These persons are primarily authors of science fiction and
fantasy, and as such, direct competitors. How all this nonsense began is with
ignorance and arrogance. These competitors blindly believed that they were
the gatekeepers who determined whose books could be talked about and whose
couldn’t. They were largely unsuccessful at the time and very frustrated with
their failure, as evidenced by many of their posts during this period of time.
They spent much of their free time in forums and discussion boards, as
evidenced by their posts by the hundreds in
various message forums over many years. Some working their hustles and making
connections; others setting up places where they could show their teeth and
attack others under the guise of trying to be the Internet police.

They had not a clue about the changing state of publishing then or
how independent authors were about to take center stage. They were simply
bitter and angry and hateful and frustrated. Disillusioned, disgruntled, maybe they
watched books like Harry Potter take off into the stratosphere and careers of
unknowns like teen author named Christopher Paolini blast off on rocket ships
while they were left behind to hustle on the message boards only to become
increasingly bitter.

Along came another book from another author they’d never
heard of, a book from an independent press and what seemed an easy
target for all that bottled up anger, rage and resentment inside them. It was my bad timing to be in the wrong place when there was
blood in the water, especially as these competitors saw people start to talk
about my books when they and their works were rarely, if ever, mentioned except
perhaps when they worked themselves into discussions, even after having spent
endless hours trolling about the Internet.

Nobody ever deputized these persons to determine whose works
could be talked about and whose works couldn’t, whose works could sell and
whose works couldn’t, but that didn’t stop them from appointing themselves as
judges, juries and executioners. So they and their friends went out to places where my books were
being discussed and told people they knew in these places: this guy’s a fraud,
no one but the author himself would be discussing this book, no one but the
author himself would be writing reviews of this book and on and on. That was,
of course, was likely their experience as they had largely failed after months and years
of trying to get people to talk about them and their works and/or months and
years of trying to break in to publishing in a meaningful way.

They never stopped to think for a moment and consider that
thousands of people were buying and reading my books at the times they were shouting the loudest, that the
books had debuted very successfully in e-format months earlier or that Reagent
Press had given away numerous advanced reading copies before ever releasing the
first printed books for purchase. Instead, these competitors stoked the flames
of hate, filed bogus complaints and enlisted others to do the same. Not only
did they get forum moderators to remove discussions of my work and ban users
who were discussing my books, they then more often than not got others to start
hateful discussions of my work and me personally, turning positive word of
mouth into negative word of mouth.

But it wasn’t just message forums they went to. They and their friends went to
Amazon and other places where my books were available for purchase and began
filing bogus complaints while enlisting others to do the same. In their
complaints, they told these places this guy's a fraud, that any positive reviews or
discussions about my books were written by me, etc, etc. They backed up their bogus claims with bogus statistics about how many reviews the customers had or hadn’t
written, how many votes a review did or didn’t have, how positive reviews were
supposedly being used to push negative reviews down the page, how a reviewer
had or hadn't written reviews of several of my books, and it went on and on. They
continued to complain and stomp their feet until the sites took action. They did this time and again.

As sites like Amazon evolved, so did the gorilla tactics used
to damage my reputation and sales. If they and their friends deemed too many people had written
Listmania lists or So You Like It guides with my books in them, they went to
the message forums and ranted about fake lists, fraud and sock puppets, etc,
etc until they stirred people up and got them angry enough to run rampant on
Amazon, file bogus complaints, etc. They kept it up until the lists and guides were
removed or they simply No voted the lists and guides into oblivion. If they saw
a discussion about my books on Amazon, they went to the forums to whine about
how that guy was using sock puppets to talk up his books, how that guy was a
fraud, and more until they stirred people into action to file complaints,
report posts, vote No on posts to make the posts disappear and more. If my
books got positive reviews, they used similar tactics to get people to report the
reviews, vote No on the reviews and/or to ensure negative reviews appeared at
the top of book pages instead of positive ones. If they couldn’t cajole Amazon
or other sites into removing positive reviews, they added hateful comments. Often
they organized these “hate-ins” as I call them in public message forums, which is how I tracked these activities to their sources. They
had no fear of getting caught as they blindly believed, and largely continue to
believe, they had/have a right to do whatever they want without consequence
whatsoever. Anyone who dared to question what they were doing? Well, they got the same
treatment as anyone who dared to talk about my works.

So at times when my career should have taken off and soared,
it instead was being derailed, like when my books were #1 on Audible and being
bought and read by thousands of people every single day. Here, these competitors and their
friends were out en masse at Amazon and other sites, getting the sites to block
and/or remove any positive reviews, discussions or mentions of me and my work
while simultaneously posting negative reviews, discussions and comments about
my work and me personally and enlisting others to do the same. It was the
changing nature of publishing that largely made this possible and the fact that
willing participants worked at some of these sites.

Imagine how my readers felt, and I’ve heard from many of
them over the years. These readers were fans of my work, yet they found that if
they discussed my work that not only would sites remove the discussion posts,
reviews or whatever regarding my work they’d written, the sites often would go
in and remove and/or block their entire accounts. These fans were literally
bullied into silence and made to feel they had done something wrong simply by discussing
me and my works in the first place.

The net effect was these competitors, and the sites that participated,
were ensuring I lost my most ardent fans as fast as I gained them. For anyone
working in the entertainment industry, word of mouth is critical to success and
sales. Equally important are ardent fans who are far and few between on the
whole. My competitors absolutely knew this and that’s why they worked so hard
to not only block any and all positive commentary regarding my works but to get
positive commentary removed and replaced with negative commentary.

The architects of hate are still out there. Some still at it
more than a decade after all this nonsense started. They've never had to answer to any one for what they've done, meanwhile I continue to get hate and anger thrown in my face almost every single day. Amazing world we live in when a guy who has dedicated his life to the written word, with over 150 published books to his credit, has to endure such nonsense daily because of unethical competitors.

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Robert Stanek has donated his time for more than 8 years. Beginning 2015, he can no longer do this. If you appreciate GoIndie, ReadIndies, FreeToday, and the other indie services we provide, help us keep going by making a donation today.